[. . . My Obsession With Gratefulness. I Can't Stop. Just Now, I Press The Elevator Button And Am Thankful That It Arrives Quickly. I Get Onto The Elevator And Am Thankful That The Elevator Cable Didn't Snap And Plummet Me To The Basement. I Go To The Fifth Floor And Am Thankful That I Didn't Have To Stop On The Second Or Third Or Fourth Floor. I Get Out And Am Thankful That Julie Left The Door Unlocked So I Don't Have To Rummage For My King Kong Key Ring. I Walk In, And Am Thnkful That Jasper Is Home And Healthy And Stuffing His Face With Pineapple Wedges. And On And On. I'm Actually Muttering To Myself, 'Thank You. . .thank You. . . Thank You.' It's An Odd Way To Live. But Also Kind Of Great And Powerful. I've Never Before Been So Aware Of The Thousands Of Little Good Things, The Thousands Of Things That Go Right Every Day.]

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"We cast out votes and raised our leaders, charming men and women with white teeth and silver tongues, and we shoved our many hopes and fears into their hands, believing those hands were strong because they had firm handshakes. They failed us, always. There was no way they could not fail us-- they were human, and more importantly, so were we." - Author: Isaac Marion

"… and thats why they leave, isnt it? Because they have to see themselves in the context of something larger than just the two of them. Its like that Faiz poem, you know, mujh say pehli si muhabat, when youve seen the sorrows of the rest of the world you cant go on pretending none of it matters, you cant pretend two people can really live in isolation telling themselves their love is all that matters in the world. And that two of them, when they come back to the city, thats when they find out that their love was imperfect because it couldnt bear the knowledge of everything that lies outside…" - Author: Kamila Shamsie

"My God, Mace was all man, the kind of man every warm-blooded woman would love to take home for the night, tie to her bed and let loose on. Sitting this close to him, my mind conjured up a long list of things I could do, just with my mouth." - Author: Lola Stark

"If you live consciously, if you try to bring consciousness to every act that you go through, you will be living in a silent, blissful state, in serenity, in joy, in love. Your life will have the flavour of a festival. That is the meaning of heaven: your life will have many flowers in it, much fragrance will be released through you. You will have an aura of delight. Your life will be a song of life-affirmation, it will be a sacred yes to all that existence is. You will be in communion with existence — in communion with stars, with the trees, with the rivers, with the mountains, with people, with animals. This whole life and this whole existence will have a totally different meaning for you. From every nook and corner, rivers of bliss will be flowing towards you. Heaven is just a name for that state of mind. Hell means you are living so unconsciously, so absurdly, in such contradiction, that you go on creating more and more misery for yourself." - Author: Osho

"One more nice thing about short stories is that you can create a story out of the smallest details -an idea that springs up in your mind, a word, an image, whatever. In most cases its like jazz improvisation, with the story taking me where it wants to. And another good point is that with short stories you dont have to worry about failing. If the idea doesnt work out the way you hoped it would, you just shrug your shoulders and tell yourself that they cant all be winners. Even with masters of the genre like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Raymond Carver -even Anton Chekhov- not every short story is a masterpiece. I find this a great comfort. You can learn from your mistakes (in other words, those you cant call complete success) and use that in the next story you write." - Author: Haruki Murakami

"The possible redemption from the predicament of irreversibility──of being unable to undo what one has done──is the faculty of forgiving. The remedy for unpredictability, for the chaotic uncertainty of the future, is contained in the faculty to make and keep promises. Both faculties depend upon plurality, on the presence and acting of others, for no man can forgive himself and no one can be bound by a promise made only to himself." - Author: Hannah Arendt

"Thought only destroys because it broadens. A mans brain is a bomb," he cried out, loosening suddenly his strange passion and striking his own skull with violence. "My brain feels like a bomb, night and day. It must expand! It must expand! A mans brain must expand, if it breaks up the universe." - Author: G.K Chesterton

"Denial is the first line of defence against a problem and also the easiest, since it requires no action. In Saudi Arabia, denial is almost an institution ... it suits the authorities to deny that homosexual activity exists in the kingdom to any significant extent, and it suits gay Saudis (who well understand how the rules work) to assist that denial by keeping a low profile. If it reaches a stage where denial is no longer, possible, however, the authorities are obliged to respond. The choice then is between tolerance and oppression ..." - Author: Brian Whitaker

"Baldwin is sort of getting to be a bit funny. I dont know what happened, but a few years ago they suddenly went bankrupt and Gibson bought the whole outfit. Since then they havent seemed to be doing an awfully good job of providing pianos." - Author: Marian McPartland